Will the Circle Be (Un)Broken
by Vergil1989 the Crossover King
Summary: Summary: The last thing Booker DeWitt ever expected to find in his life after Wounded Knee were people who were worth a damn. Three women will change the course of his life in ways he could never have imagined. Two sides of the same coin, and one linked to him directly, what could possibly go wrong? Contains language, violence and gore, and possible sexual content later.


_Opening Notes; Vergil1989; This is what happens when we stay up late and start talking about games. We get to coming up with even crazier ideas lol. You'd think we would have learned by now but nope, we keep doing it. D This latest nutty idea involves the epic story of Bioshock Infinite, and at least one of the characters from Mass Effect, post endgame from the third entry in the series. As much as I hate the Crucible endings, it's the only way I see this working at all at the moment. So, without further ado, let's get this lo...I mean story started. D_

**Chapter 1; First Card, Jack of Spades**

**Grissom Academy, 2187 CE**

War was something she understood all too well. As far back as she could remember, she had been in a fight for her life. Just this past year had seen the galaxy she knew and hated, somewhat, in the grips of the Reapers, a race of sentient machines that had been hell bent on wiping out all organic life. If not for Commander Shepard, a Spacer brat and Hero of Elysium, who united the galaxy into the single largest army that had ever existed to combat the Reaper threat, she had no doubt that she and the rest of the universe would be nothing but ashes by now.

_If I didn't care so damn much for my students, I'd almost prefer being melted down into genetic slop for a new Reaper embryo instead of screwing around with this mountain of paperwork._ Having seen the Reaper 'baby' in the Collector base first hand, her imagination filled in the rest. Jack sighed and looked to the ceiling as she kicked back in her chair, needing a break from the tedium that came with being a teacher at Grissom Academy. Her use of biotic power was beyond spectacular on the battlefield, and she had the juice to nuke small battalions with ease. She could rip a YMIR mech in half with her bare hands, and yet, she couldn't fill out the forms in front of her without wanting to pass out.

Her eyes briefly flicked over to a framed photo, which was facedown on her desk. The echo of the blast wave went through her mind at the mere thought of who was in that particular picture, making Jack pause for another reason altogether.

The only reason she was still doing this at all was because of Shepard. She had gotten the 'psychotic biotic' straightened out after years of Hell. Jack knew that there were truly good people out there that weren't out for themselves, because of Shepard. There were still assholes out there sure, but if she needed a reminder that the galaxy was also full of people willing to hold the line against the darkness out there, all she had to do was look at the picture on the back wall of her office. Turning the chair around with a simple tap of her foot against her desk, Jack looked up at the almost wall wide picture frame that held the image of the entire team.

Front and center was of course Shepard herself, Liara T'Soni right by her side. Thane and his son, Kolyat Krios, Mordin Solus, Grunt, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, (she never once had considered Tali as vas Neema), Legion the sentient geth, EDI the ship's A.I., Urdnot Wrex, Samara, that bitchy Cerberus cheerleader Miranda Lawson, Jeff 'Joker' Moreau, Kaidan Alenko, Ashley Williams, Doctor Karin Chakwas, Kasumi Goto, Jacob Taylor, and Zaeed Massani. She had been standing off to the side of the photo, arms crossed in irritation, and a smug look on her face.

"They are a rather eclectic group aren't they sweet sister?" Spinning around in her chair, Jack almost fell out of it when she saw she had visitors. The fact she hadn't heard the door open was more than a little disconcerting. Two of them in fact had gotten the drop on her, a man and a woman that looked like they had been cut from the same set of chromosomes.

"You would notice the picture first dear brother, when it's her we're here for." The woman was quick to add in. "Try not to get hit this time, it's truly annoying hearing you whine with a broken nose."

The back and forth banter between the two was creepy, to say the least, but Jack was far too pissed off to give it much mind as she slammed her hands on her desk and glared at the two with murder in her eyes. "You idiots have two seconds to get the hell out. Or I splatter your fucking guts on the walls. Your choice."

"I see her lackluster vocabulary rarely changes. Couldn't you have picked a less foul mouthed, irritating-" The sister just sighed as the sound of her brother's nose cracking filled the room a second later. Jack had flown over her desk and smashed the brother's head against the metal desk for his trouble before turning her attention to the only other woman in the room.

"It seems that you never learn dear brother. You would think pain would motivate you to hold your tongue. Oh well, that's not the pertinent issue right now." A white cloth was tossed with practiced ease at the bleeding man. "I never understand why you must always rile her up, she isn't going to enjoy this next bit as it is."

"You have three seconds to start making some goddamn sense lady, then I'm throwing you both out of the nearest airlock." The fact she hadn't done it already was a miracle in and of itself.

"Yes...that was rather unpleasant last time. I do believe we should endeavor to avoid it, dear sister." The man glowered at her from behind his blood soaked cloth as he nursed his still bleeding nose. "While knowing what it's like to feel your blood boil is indeed a fascinating experience, even I would rather not do it again."

"Since this was your idea to begin with dear brother, I should hope that we don't have a repeat performance of our last trip outside." The woman held up a hand to silence Jack before she could begin to say anything before turning her attention to the powerful biotic. "You wish to know why we're here, when the more important question is where you're going.

"I _wish to FUCKING know _how two clearly insane people got on this station!" Jack cocked her head at the woman's last statement. "What do you mean, where the fuck I'm going? Who are you two?!"

"You'll find that out soon enough Subject Zero, but suffice it to say, your help is needed." The man said moments before his sister took the initiative again even as Jack flinched at the use of her old Cerberus designation.

You'd think the glare that the woman shot towards her brother would have gotten the point across, but unfortunately she knew that would not be the case. "You Destroyed one door with your Shepard but opened another, that is why we are here."

"That, and I do love a good experiment. You must admit sister, things have gotten far more interesting since we...became more creative in our recruitment practices." The man didn't get to say another word when Jack shoved her hand through his chest, planning on showing the man his still beating heart before he died.

When the man simply smirked at her, and his sister didn't bat an eyelash, it worried Jack more than a little. "Care to try again?" A shudder in the air passed over the office, and Robert Lutece was standing once again as if nothing happened. His vest was a little ruffled and he made a show of straightening it out. "How about best three out of five?"

Jack was way out of her depth when the man she had just killed merely shrugged as if he hadn't had his chest caved in. "What the fuck are you two?!"

Rosalind Lutece carried on, having wholly expected the 'death' of her brother once again. "Merely visitors, nothing more, a whisp of smoke that is soon forgotten. But unlike smoke, we have far more purpose here than you know." The shudder in the air returned before the very air pulled apart in front of the twins, as if the fabric of reality had just been torn asunder.

"I never do tire of this part...before you lies a chance at redemption Jack. Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt." Even as Rosalind talked in the riddles the twins were so fond of, Jack had a feeling she knew exactly what 'debt' she was referring to as she cast one last look at the picture on her desk that was facedown because of her failure.

"It's because you started this mess that we're stuck as surely as everyone we've...recruited dear sister." It was the last she heard as Jack stepped through the tear in reality and didn't look back.

**Mars Archive Research Base.**

"Do you need another cup of coffee sis?" Oriana asked as Miranda looked up from the computer terminal that was hardwired into the prothean archive. "You've been at that thing for almost a day. Glaring at it harder isn't going to make it give you any answers."

Miranda only smirked at her genetic twin, having found her sense of humor quite refreshing after years of working alone. Being second in command of Cerberus, next to the Illusive Man himself, hadn't afforded her a lot of time to socialize outside of the office. Oriana had been given a life, a chance to be normal. Together they were far stronger than they had ever been apart, and they had Commander Shepard to thank for it. "Yes, although you don't have to hide your interest in that cute researcher down in sub level 2 by acting like you're merely going out for coffee."

"Like the same 'interest' you have for Alenko?" Oriana prided herself on being one of three people that could actually get her sister to blush. Looking outside of the window that overlooked the bleak martian landscape, she knew she wasn't the only one that missed Shepard as she caught Miranda doing the same from their desk. "I never would have believed one woman could do so much until I met her, and you."

"Almost a year has gone by, and I still expect her to come running down the hall with a small army of Reapers on her tail." The image was fitting since the day she had met the unstoppable woman, it had been one battle after another. Shepard never stood still for long. Oriana had only met the woman in passing, but it was far more than enough to give her the same impression. They just didn't make women like Commander Shepard anymore, and they might never have someone like her again in any lifetime. As far as Miranda was concerned, Shepard had been a one of a reality kind of woman, and she was gone. Her body had been found in the wreckage of the Crucible after the red pulse had been fired from its core, and not even the Lazarus Project could put her back together again like last time.

"You know what, I think I need a break after all. Go have fun with...Richard was it?" As tempted as she was to go through her sister's extranet messages again, Miranda had been allowing Oriana her privacy far more than before the war was over. Cerberus was done; she, Jacob, and Oriana had seen to its final downfall after Jack Harper met his end at Shepard's hands. There was no reason to fear for her safety anymore, especially with their maniac of a father gone as well.

"Say hello to Kaidan for me then Miri. And try to be a little nicer to him, you love him and you know it. No point in playing hard to get."

"I can still hack your messages sis." Miranda only received a playful smile from her sister for her trouble.

As Miranda headed out of the main research lab, she activated her omni-tool and opened a comm link. She was only mildly annoyed when Kaidan's comm went to a message program. She _had _been a little testy lately after all. "Hello Kaidan, I've decided to stop obsessing for a while, like you suggested, shocking I know. I took some advice from my sister and decided to try to patch things up between us. Just...call me back when you get the chance, please." Miranda sighed heavily as she closed her omni-tool down and waved her hand over the door lock that was in front of her, an action she had done a thousand times without incident since settling down at the Mars base. When the door didn't open, she chalked it up to mechanical error since the lock wasn't engaged and prepared to call for a maintenance team to check it out when something caught her eye.

Two strangely dressed individuals were in the security station on her right, and they seemed to be quite happy about something. "It seems the door jam we put into place works after all dear sister."

The fair shorter of the two smirked up at the man next to her. "At least you weren't electrocuted this time by the security measures. Good show dear brother!"

_Why does her voice sound so bloody familiar? _"I thought I knew everyone that worked here, but it seems I was wrong." Miranda kept her cool far better than most people as her hand remained on her hip, away from the gun she kept on the other as she casually gazed at the strange pair. "I'd like to see your IDs if you don't mind...or I can tell you about the last person that failed to comply."

"He met an untimely end when you vented his skull, or was that Wilson? I always mix those up." The brother began.

And the sister finished moments later. "No, he was shot in the throat I believe. But I'm sure he would have prefered the same. Less gasping for life that way."

_Okay...these two are crazed._ Even so, they knew too much about events they had no right to know about as far as Miranda was concerned as she finally did pull her sidearm and called upon her biotic ability as her empty hand filled with dark energy. "You have thirty seconds to start making sense. Who are you and why are you here?"

"I think alacrity would prove best, given she's always quicker to kill than even her unstable 'friend'." Miranda noticed when the brother absently rubbed at his nose for some reason.

"You don't need to remind me dear sister, but it's not me I'm worried about this time. She normally kills you first." The former Cerberus Operative only raised an eyebrow at that remark as she cocked her head to the side for only a moment. This conversation was getting stranger by the second.

The very air in the corridor seemed to rip apart as a glowing portal of some kind appeared behind them. "A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words. Although, in your case Ms. Lawson, it'd probably be closer to a short thesis." A picture floated out of the tear and fell at the feet of the former operative, but she was still reeling from what she had just seen to notice it at first. When she did, Miranda's cool veneer shattered as she jerked her gaze back to the twins, only to see they had disappeared.

When she looked to the picture again, she holstered her gun and wondered how in the Hell they had gotten a hold of it to begin with since it was of her and Niket before she had gotten it into her head to escape with Oriana. It was impossible for it to exist, she had burned it when she got away as a means to separate herself from the life she had left behind.

"You seem surprised Ms. Lawson." The twins were back, having somehow gotten behind her about the same time a portal appeared directly in front of her. She only had time to turn around before two sets of hands pushed her through the portal, making her stumble and fall backward through the tear in reality. "Give us the girl, and wipe away the debt. Only then can Sanctuary be obtained from your many sins."

The last thing she saw was their smirking faces as the woman cheerfully spoke up. "Sorry about the disorientation in advance, bon voyage!" Miranda wasn't so out of her element however as she aimed her gun at the woman's head and pulled the trigger before she fell through completely, a smirk of her own on her face as she heard the satisfying squish when a mass accelerated round vented the woman's head before the tear closed in front of the twins.

**Columbia, 1912**

"I am never doing that again." Booker DeWitt muttered to himself as he climbed out of the pod that had brought him up to the city in the clouds. It had been a hell of a rocky ride, but the view of Columbia had been breathtaking. After climbing out of the pod, Booker saw he had wound up in some kind of church if the dozens of wax candles and stained glass windows set into the stone walls were anything to go by. "Hello?" It was unlike any other church he'd seen, not that he'd been in one in a long time. God and him had nothing to do with each other, and he liked that just fine. The last time he checked though, images of the Founding Fathers and a man in modern clothing with a flowing beard, usually weren't part of the divine decor.

So fascinated by the stained glass window in front of him, it took him a moment to notice the two women sprawled out facedown in the pool of water that covered the entire floor. After nearly tripping over one of them, he caught himself against the wall of the corridor before he fell and immediately pulled the closer of the two over so she didn't drown. Less than a second later, he was doing the same for the other one. Only then did he bother to get a good look at them, once he was sure they were breathing properly.

What he found interesting was the fact neither looked like any member of the fairer sex that he had ever seen before in his life. Societal norms dictated that women wore long skirts and stockings, and that besides the arms and face, no skin was to be shown unless in the privacy of one's home. Even then it was a tricky business at times. The two women in front of him seemed to have missed the telegram on proper attire.

The one on the right had raven black hair that hung over her shoulders, and her figure was physically appealing in every sense of the word given her...rather well filled out form. She wore a mostly black suit of some kind that seemed to cling to her body like a second skin that was cut almost too low in the front for even his liking.

The other was the exact opposite, with a strange cut to her dark brown hair and what looked to be tattoos covering her entire body. He was tempted to look her over for injuries since it seemed some form of gauze was all that mostly covered her top half, aside from a small jacket. The boots and pants she wore were built to last or he was a Negro given the fact they looked tougher than anything her jacket or the gauzy undershirt were made of by far. The fact that even in sleep, she looked angry wasn't lost on Booker as he knelt a little closer.

That was a clearly bad idea when the stranger shot out of the water like a bottle rocket and grabbed him by his throat. Her grip was stronger than steel and prying her fingers apart was an exercise in futility he soon realized. If not for the black haired woman waking up and pulling the crazed one away, he was sure he would have been dead before getting into the city proper.

"The fuck?! YOU?!" It seemed that the near naked woman had been confused upon waking up, but she seemed alright now as she glared daggers at her far calmer counterpart. "I thought I was done with you after Shepard-" A hint of sadness reached the woman's eyes, before the fierce rage he had experienced already quickly replaced it. "The Cerberus cheerleader, why did it have to be you?!"

"I'm happy to see you too Jack." As much as they butted heads, Miranda had actually missed Jack, and her less than sarcastic response showed that even to the raging unstable biotic in front of her. Looking down to the man she had almost strangled to death upon waking up, Miranda smirked a little as she responded again. "I am glad to see you haven't lost your edge, but you could have at least introduced yourself first. We can't interrogate him if he's dead after all."

"Fuck that, I'd rather know why those damn twins insisted on sending me backup." Miranda hadn't expected to hear about the twins again, especially after shooting one in the face on her way through the portal, but she never got the chance to ask.

Booker slowly raised a hand as he managed to finally catch his breath. "Let me guess, British, talk in riddles, and they're incredibly arrogant? Starting to sound familiar?" Both women nodded to Booker's question, having met those exact same people, but it should have been impossible.

"Get off your ass and stay in front of us. I'm in a _bad_ fucking mood so don't screw with me pissant." He didn't argue since this was his job and he hadn't been told to expect help anyway as he lead the way. Behind his back however, Jack and Miranda were giving each other curious looks as they sent messages to each other through their omni-tools.

"_You looked ready to shit a brick when I mentioned the twins. You met them too?"_

"_Yes, and the fact they seemed to know more about us than I felt comfortable with them knowing didn't help my opinion of them at all. I shot the woman in the head on my way through the portal they pushed me through."_

"_What?! Lucky bitch. You got to kill one of them? I stuck my hand in the guy's chest and he just smirked at me. I saw him fall to the deck, but then the air got all crazy for a second and then he was standing again as if nothing happened. Since you're here, whether I like it or not, you should know something. That creepy duo told me to find this 'girl'. They say anything to you?" _It was only when Jack looked up did she see that the guy had stopped to stare at their glowing right arms. "Hey! You better be looking somewhere else pal!"

"_He's probably never seen an omni-tool before Jack. Did you see the state of this place and his clothes? The tears the twins used might have done more than send us to a different world. And yes...they did Jack."_ Miranda was quick to type in response before deactivating her own omni-tool and falling in step behind Booker once more. She wasn't about to tell Jack more than that, not with Booker trying to discreetly read the screen of her omni-tool from where he was standing.

Booker just sighed and continued to look for the closest exit. He'd just been shot into a floating city in the sky, strange glowing devices were the least of his worries at the moment. "Nice gizmos. So, you two are here for the girl too eh? Because _I'm _going to be the one leaving with her. It's not that I don't trust you, oh wait, it is."

"I never heard anything about a girl until today, only that I was all but kidnapped from my place of employment by the strange twins you seem to know as well." Miranda replied, shrugging since it didn't matter to her one way or the other or so she tried to project to Booker anyway. "But if finding this 'girl' is our apparent goal, so be it. And you're not exactly in a position to dictate terms Mr..." Miranda suddenly realized she hadn't gotten the man's name yet.

"DeWitt, Booker DeWitt, but just call me Booker. I'd say it was nice to meet you both...but it really hasn't been a pleasure."

"Touche Mr. DeWitt, but since we're all civil here, my name is Miranda Lawson, and my...companion is called Jack." Crossing her arms under her chest, Miranda only looked at DeWitt with a cold gleam in her eyes that was more chilling than the rage that was stamped on Jack's face for some reason. Booker got the impression she could shoot him without hesitation if he got in her way, and she'd calmly keep going without a look back.

Jack shoved the man forward and pulled out her SMG. "Great, now we can be one big happy family, keep walking Asshole."

The three finally reached a massive pair of doors as Booker turned to the two women. "Well, what are you waiting for Mr. Dewitt? You can count on us to cover you."

"Yeah. Right. I feel safer already." Booker hesitated for a moment before pushing the heavy doors outwards. The lush green garden beyond hadn't been high on his list of things to expect. Neither was the rather large group of people apparently waiting to receive them, all dressed in pure white holy vestments and robes save for the head priest at the front of the crowd who was dressed in black.

"Is it someone new, someone from the Sodom below? Welcome pilgrims! Have you come to be reborn anew through the cleansing waters of baptism?" The priest asked, all smiles and holy fervor in his eyes if Miranda was any judge. She didn't like the looks of this one bit, and one look at Jack said she wasn't buying it either. Something just felt...wrong.

"I'm just looking for passage into the city for myself and my two...friends." Booker didn't see an easier way of going around these people without bloodshed, he'd have to play along. That didn't mean he was going to let these people anywhere near his 'friends' first, especially the priest who was giving him a bad feeling. It didn't help when two men approached and grabbed both his arms. Miranda stopped Jack from interfering, as much as she wanted to do it herself as they watched Booker walk forward between the two men and closer to the head priest.

"If anything seems out of place, shoot off a few rounds to scatter them." Miranda whispered into her friend's ear while Jack jerked her arm out of the Operative's grasp but nodded her understanding. Before Shepard had interfered in her life, Jack would have slaughtered them all by now. Mainly because they were in her way. But Jack had been a part of a cult before and had no love for the religious nutjobs after it turned out they just wanted to use her for their own gains. These people were cut from a different cloth perhaps, but they were still zealots as far as she was concerned. Even so, Jack held herself in check, having learned patience and caution during her time with the Commander.

When he was within arms reach of the priest, Booker reluctantly took the man's hand. "In the name of our Prophet, in the name of our Founders, and in the name of our Lord, I baptise you." The priest slowly dunked Booker into the cool waters and found himself relaxing for a moment. It looked as if this would be over quickly, but when the priest didn't relax his hold on him, DeWitt started to panic. Gasping for lungfuls of air after a few more seconds of being held under, Booker could hear the priest laughing. "I think he's still dirty, what do you think my brethren?"

"Now?" Jack asked as she smirked at the thrashing man, and Miranda nodded before they went for their guns. If they didn't act, the bastard was going to drown DeWitt. They wouldn't allow it and before anyone knew what was going on, loud explosions of noise echoed across the garden. The priest and his flock scattered, leaving Booker gasping for air for the second time in so many minutes. A hard slap on his back helped him to cough out the last of the water that had reached his lungs. "See what being nice gets you dickhead?"

"That man needs to learn the difference between baptising a man and drowning him." Booker managed a small smile despite Jack's constant rude behavior as he accepted a helping hand up out of the water from Miranda. "Thanks for stepping in like that."

"Thanks for volunteering, I'm just starting to dry off as it is." Miranda said as she gave him a wry grin, right after making sure he could breathe properly. They hadn't needed him to step in for them as he had, but the action wasn't lost on either of them.

"If we ever need you to do something that stupid again, we'll let you know." Jack scoffed, but a small smile flickered over her face. It disappeared just as quickly as she shoved Booker ahead of them again, but he had seen it and knew that underneath the tough exterior she presented, there was far more to the strange woman than she let people see.

"Story of my life." Booker muttered as he took in their surroundings, now free of an imminent watery grave. A hand grabbed his shoulder a moment later and spun him around.

Booker felt a finger jabbed into his chest as the odd woman smirked at him. "You saved our asses back their, so I'm not planning on shooting you. Yet."

"Jack, what are you rambling about? They were unarmed and besides being religiously daft, I highly doubt they could have slowed us down for long." Miranda was confused by Jack's sudden interest in them, but she had her answer a few seconds later.

"Not talking about those crazies Princess. Wonder why we woke up soaking wet? Since Dewittless was dragging me over next to you when I woke up, I'm guessing we ended up face down in all that water." You really had to wonder why the entire floor of the church had been flooded in three inches of water, but that was the last things on their minds right now. DeWitt had saved their lives, and Miranda felt like a total idiot for not realizing it sooner.

"I'll take what I can get. As for what I did, it was just the right thing to do. End of story. Let's get moving." Booker tried not to grin as Jack flipped him off, but followed nonetheless.

While they could see the city from the low level floor and high walled garden that was a part of the church's main exit, neither woman could see the city clearly enough to make out any solid details about it other than it was old fashion. The buildings weren't made of glass and steel as they were used to, but rather brick and stone mortar. So when they came upon another door, this one white and embossed with gold around the handles, Booker had to stop the two from stepping past him at the sudden drop in front of them. It took them a moment to realize that the next city block was actually floating.

Still holding on to them by the shoulders, Booker found himself pulling the two back a few paces so they weren't right on the edge. "You didn't get a look at all of this yet, did you? I take it you must have passed out on the way up?" The glares he got caused him to let them go immediately.

"Up?" Both women said at the same time, with equally confused expressions stamped on their faces.

Booker gestured with his hands, giving them the basic idea of his rocket flight up to Columbia. "The flying death trap that got me here. Wait...how did you get here?"

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you Mr. DeWitt." Miranda managed to say as she cast her gaze back over the approaching city block, the locking mechanism in front of them lowering just as the block in front of them got close enough to glide smoothly into place without so much as a whisper of noise. "Amazing, truly amazing."

"So it's a fancy lock, big deal Princess." Somehow, Jack didn't seem half as threatening with her jaw constantly hanging open in outright awe. A floating city above the clouds. Not in her wildest imaginings could she have envisioned anything like this. "Maybe I'm just fucking dreaming all this. No wait, the cheerleader is here, so it has to be a nightmare."

"Very funny Jack." Miranda wasn't amused but she didn't bother to comment further as she looked to the city again that was laid out before them. The Citadel was a marvel of technology, to be sure, but this place, while far simpler in its design, was no less impressive in her opinion.

"Ladies first." DeWitt managed a cocky grin as he motioned for them to take the lead, even though he had absolutely no idea what to do next. Floating cities were a little foreign to him as well. They shrugged, sensing no ill will anywhere around them and even though they didn't trust their male companion further than they could throw him, he had saved their lives twice now. That had to count for something.

"Do you know where this 'girl' is supposed to be?" Jack asked as she picked up a hot dog from a cart without consulting the vendor that was selling them. The man shrugged since everything was free during the carnival even though he was more interested in the strangers that had entered Columbia. He wasn't the only one as the crowds stopped and stared as the strange trio moved through the city, but they didn't hinder their progress.

Pulling out the small wooden box that was tucked in his vest, Booker opened it up to show the two a picture of the angel statue he had. "Monument Island, or so I've been lead to believe." He quickly pulled out the other photo, a picture of the girl herself, and handed it to them. "Here, take a good look. This is what 'the girl' looks like." The picture was in black and white, same as the angel photograph, but both Miranda and Jack were more than a little curious as to why someone was after a kid that couldn't have been older than sixteen, eighteen tops. Jack noticed something familiar in her eyes, but pushed the thought to the back of her head for later.

Upon entering the carnival grounds, it became clear very quickly that it was a very popular event with countless booths and vendors set up along the main thoroughfare. One had a small crowd gathered in front of him as two strangely dressed assistants stood in front of his stage, demonstrating something called Vigors. "Interesting, it's either clever stage magic, or they've somehow managed to tap into parts of the brain and body otherwise inaccessible." Miranda said as she watched one of the two assistants juggle fireballs in his metal gloved hands while the other shot lightning into the sky, much to the crowd's delight.

They continued to wander for a while, taking in the incredible sights around them, until a young boy ran up to the trio. "Mr. DeWitt? I have a telegram for you!" Booker quickly took the slip of paper and tossed the boy one of the coins he had found earlier. From the look on the boy's face as he dashed away, it must have been worth more than he thought. _Better take a note of that for next time._

"A telegram? That belongs in a museum." Miranda was quick to add her two cents in, but she was curious as to what it said. Someone had went to a lot of trouble to send them a message, so it stood to reason it was advice they needed to avoid trouble later.

"Let's see here...DeWitt STOP. Do not draw Comstock's attention to yourself STOP. Do not pick # 77 STOP. Lutece. Huh." Booker shrugged and tucked it away in his vest along with a picture of Monument Island, where the girl was to be found.

Jack gave him a wary look as she read over the piece of paper for herself. "Friend of yours?" Booker shook his head, but it was clear the woman's attention was already focused on something else.

"Step right up and test your aim! Winner gets a prize!" Another hawker shouted from his booth, a target range set up behind him. Jack looked to Booker, not about to ask permission, but rather seeing if he was paying attention as she slipped away to test her luck at the range. "Well hey there little lady, care to give this a shot?"

"Just line em up." Was Jack's confident answer as she picked up the gun that was set up for the game. Twenty points to win was all she needed, and there were prizes for ten and five points. _Please, I could do this in my sleep._ The arena on the Citadel was many times harder than simple target practice like this, and she was a professional there. She had survived countless battles with nothing but her biotics and the gun on her hip.

She lived up to her reputation, as fifteen seconds later the man running the booth was handing over the grand prize. "Hey Booker, catch!"

"Yeah, yeah what is it?" As he caught the object flung at him without a second thought, Booker was surprised to feel the weight of a pistol in his hands again. It felt good to be armed with iron again, but receiving the gun from Jack had been the last thing he expected to happen. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it DeWittless." The bag of silver eagles that had also been handed over, she kept for herself. "Wait a minute...did that guy just shoot fucking lightning out of his hands?! I'll be right back."

"She only just now noticed?" Booker asked Miranda who only shook her head in embarrassment at Jack's behavior. Before he knew what was going on, he noticed that his other companion had found her way over to another target range where the hawker was saying something about a local rebel group called the Vox Populi.

Picking up the rifle in front of her, Miranda looked to the man on his box and asked. "Who are the Vox?"

"Where have you been my fair lady huntress? Why the Vox Populi are only the terror of our fair city of Columbia, ran by the anarchist Daisy Fitzroy. Now, do you plan to play our little game?" Miranda filed away the fact that the hawker hadn't bothered to give her any concrete information and aimed down the sights of the very old fashion rifle.

Less than a minute later, Booker had a shiny new rifle to go with his pistol. Miranda was also willing to split the money purse she had won with him, which surprised him to no end. _I guess I made a better first impression than I thought._

"At least these morons didn't give you ammunition to go with the deadly weapons." Miranda said after she joined Booker's side again. "That'd just be pushing it." The propaganda alone was enough to give her a headache. She hadn't seen nearly as much obvious displays of brainwashing since she had gone to war against Cerberus. Everywhere you looked was a poster or a flag of some sort talking about paying tribute to the Founders and the American Dream. To her intelligent mind, it didn't take her long to figure out that somewhere along the line, things had been taken to their extreme.

Booker tried not to laugh when it was clear Jack was doing her best to casually sneak up behind her irritated friend. The woman jumped in pain a moment later after being on the wrong end of what was appropriately named Shock Jockey, one of the Vigors that had been advertised on their way into the carnival. "The look on your face was priceless cheerleader. Be glad it was just a sample, word has it the full strength stuff is many times stronger."

"You're lucky I don't-" Booker raised an eyebrow as Miranda held her hand out to the other woman, as if expecting something to happen.

"If you're looking for a little payback, you need to drink one of those 'Vigor' things first." Booker waved around at the various advertisements plastered everywhere alongside the other posters Miranda had noticed earlier.

"No, you don't understand Mr. DeWitt... It's not important, let's just get moving." _My amp, it should have worked. Did it get damaged during the transition to...wherever this place is?_ If that was the case, she realized she could be in serious trouble. Not to mention that Jack was also vulnerable if her amp was damaged as well.

After seeing nothing but utter confidence on this woman's face, Booker felt the hairs stand up on the back of his neck at her clearly worried expression. It was gone a moment later, but he knew something was wrong. "Ms. Lawson...Miranda, are you alright-"

"Back off pissant, I need a moment with the cheerleader." If she wasn't so upset over the fact that they were potentially at their weakest without the full abilities of their biotics, Miranda would have been surprised by Jack's sudden concern for her as the former convict pulled her into an alleyway. "Don't try to give me the line of bull that you're alright, what's going on?"

"Try your amp. Lift that barrel, something!" Jack blinked in confusion at the obvious agitation on the Operative's face, but was quick to shake it off as she tried to do what Miranda asked. To her shock and dismay, Jack found that she too was shooting blanks as all she managed to do was make the wooden barrel wobble a little bit before she had to stop.

"The fuck?! What the hell is going on?!" All of her life, Jack had been able to do extraordinary feats with dark energy, things few human biotics were capable of. To be reduced to a common woman with a gun was more than a little frightening to the otherwise powerful warrior.

"Did that barrel just move?" Both women were less than pleased to see Dewitt's head poking around the corner. "Okay, now I _know _something is wrong with the two of you. Sorry about the eavesdropping." The man nervously rubbed the back of his neck as Jack yanked him away from the alleyway entrance.

"You say one goddamn word to anyone..." Bereft of her powers or not, she still had a fully operating gun, and she had it pressed up against the man's chin before he could blink.

Booker held out his hands as he tried to calm the woman down, careful to make sure they weren't anywhere near his new weapons. He had no doubt she could kill him in a split second if need be, but it was the flash of fear in her eyes that caught his attention. "Whoa! Relax, I'm not telling a damn soul! Far as I see it, you two are just about the only people I can trust in this crazy city." _Whoever these two are, they aren't used to being without...whatever it is they've lost. What have I gotten myself into this time?_

"Jack, he's not our enemy, and as much as I hate to admit it, he's right. We need him as much as he needs us." Jack growled in the back of her throat but backed off at Miranda's insistence. "I think I can fix our amps, but it'll take time and I'd need to run a full diagnostic on them before I can be sure. That requires space and peace to work. For now, let's continue to move on as if nothing's changed."

"Fine, just don't expect me to relax until I'm back in fighting shape." Jack only got a nod from her calmer counterpart as she sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, radiating unease.

Seeing that this woman's bark was worse than her bite, at least for those she trusted, Booker gave Jack his best shit eating grin. "What? Being able to shoot a man between the eyes, or break his neck in two seconds flat, that isn't fighting shape? Last time I looked it up, that was more or less the definition." If Jack or Miranda were bothered by the way DeWitt kept slightly closer to them, they didn't bother complaining.

"If I didn't know any better dear brother, I'd say that our new recruits nearly lost their _heads_." The twins were back, standing at the entrance to the alleyway, only this time the brother was wearing a green chalkboard sign over his shoulders that said simply Heads and Tails with tally marks underneath the Heads column.

"I'd say that they were more likely to chase their _tails_, yet you insisted on picking them." The brother replied as the three quickly approached them.

"Didn't I kill you already?!" Jack shouted, recognizing the man immediately once they were closer, although his annoying voice had set off warning bells by then.

"I was about to ask the same thing. Aren't you dead?" Miranda was just as shocked as she met the woman's gaze, knowing she hadn't missed the mark as she fell through the portal. She had seen the woman's brains fly out the back of her skull.

The woman shrugged and gave the confused biotic a sly smile. "I got better."

"It didn't take." The man was quick to add in, smiling as if he knew a joke that only he understood.

The sister extended a plate holding a single coin towards Booker. "So...heads?"

"Or tails?" The man asked following his sister's cue.

_These two are really starting to creep me out. Might as well humor them, hopefully then they'll leave us the hell alone. _ Without even thinking, DeWitt picked the coin up and flipped it onto the plate. "Tails."

"He- Tails?" The woman looked down at the plate and nearly dropped it as if it was a snake, prepared to bite her. "I don't know if we should be happy or terrified, dear brother." She glumly took a piece of chalk and marked a single white line under Tails.

"Take it as leap of faith, dear sister, and let us see where this path takes us." The man seemed unbothered by what had happened, but Booker and his new companions still noted a slight gleam of fear behind his eyes as the twins wandered off, but not before the small group caught a glimpse of the man's back. Well over a hundred tally marks were under the Heads column.

"Anyone else got the urge to beat the shit out of those two, or is it just me?" Booker lightly put his hand on Jack's shoulder to keep her from making an even bigger scene than they had already.

"It didn't do us any good before, why should it help us this time?" Miranda said as she rolled her eyes at the overly violent ex-convict turned teacher. Despite her irritated response, the former Cerberus Operative was unnerved by what she just seen, and she knew Jack was just as surprised to see the twins again healthy and unmarked, yet somehow able to remember what they had done to them.

"It would fucking make me feel better, okay?" The ex-con growled in reply, sighing as she kicked the barrel she had failed to move earlier.

"Come on, let's stop standing around before someone asks what we're up to." Booker had been the only one to notice the two policemen staring at them from across the way. Not that he blamed the two women for being distracted at the moment, he wasn't faring much better. Ever since getting off the boat, his day had gotten stranger and stranger.

They just decided to go with the ebb and flow of the foot traffic for a while before a waving man caught their attention. "Welcome to the raffle folks, have a good time!" It wasn't until they approached the largest stage they had seen yet that things got interesting again.

DeWitt was approached by a young woman carrying a basket. "Ball sir?" When he didn't immediately respond, she leaned closer. "For the raffle..."

"Oh, well thanks." DeWitt shrugged as he pulled a ball at random from the girl's basket, only to see # 117 emblazoned on it. It wasn't until he looked over to Jack that he began to worry. Miranda only crossed her arms and glared coldly at the young woman, silently giving her incentive to move on.

"Fuck me." # 77 stared back at her, and she couldn't get rid of it fast enough as someone next to her spotted the number after the winning one was called out by the man on stage almost immediately.

"We have a winner! She's the winner, over here!" Before Jack could react, she was being pushed and pulled towards the stage.

The band near the stage started playing a mocking version of 'The Wedding March', and somehow Booker just knew everything was about to go to hell. "Come up and claim your prize! First throw!" His gut feeling turned out to be right as the man in charge of the event soon revealed the darker nature of this strange place. Columbia was as twisted a place as they came in Booker's opinion, far more so in Jack or Miranda's case. When the curtain rose to reveal a couple tied to wooden posts, it didn't take Jack or the other two long to realize just what or rather who the target was.

"No...no please!" The woman was black, Miranda noted, and her partner, or husband she figured, was white. Was that the reason why they were tied up and about to receive an old fashion 'stoning'? If that was the case, then there was something seriously wrong with the people here.

"Please! It was own my fault! Let her go! Please! Don't do this!" The husband struggled valiantly against his bonds, but it was to no avail as the crowd roared all the louder in cheer at the impending bloodshed.

Jack was having none of it. A few years ago she might have enjoyed pelting a random stranger with a ball, but she had changed since those days. "What the fuck is wrong with you people?!" The cheers died down almost immediately when it became apparent that she had no intention of hurting the two. "What happened to a fair trial or Hell, innocent until proven guilty?!"

Miranda was impressed and appalled in equal parts by what was unfolding before her eyes, but one look at the authorities warned her that they were in deep trouble. Jack would have been the last person she'd ever expect to hear what she had just said, but as impressed as Miranda was by her maturity in this situation, her hand still wandered to the sidearm on her hip as the local 'cops' drew closer. _Garrus would have shot the announcer by now and most likely the crooked authorities as well._

"Ha! Looks like this one likes her coffee black! No need for a trial, just look at 'em! Now you gonna throw that ball or not honey?" Booker had already taken a few steps back from the clearly enraged woman. Apparently that hadn't been enough of a hint for the leering man on stage to duck.

"You want me to throw this?" Jack tossed the ball up and caught it in one quick motion as the man gave her a smiling nod. "Catch this asshole!" A glowing blue streak of light answered his question as the ball smashed into the announcer's face. The fact that most of his face exploded upon impact answered the question as to whether or not he would be getting back up again. "That answer your question you dick faced mother fucker?!" Booker saw that blood had started to freely trickle from Jack's nose as she staggered in exhaustion from whatever she had just done to the announcer.

_Even without a functioning amp, Jack is still the most powerful human biotic on record. I would do well to remember that._ Miranda was thoroughly impressed, to say the least, and knew how she had accomplished the feat that should have otherwise been impossible. Rage was Jack's motivation; it gave her strength when she would have otherwise lacked it, and if she needed evidence it was a powerful force in her hands, all Miranda had to do was look to the dead man on stage.

What was a slightly riled crowd now turned into outright panic as people stumbled over each other to run from Jack as quickly as possible. Only the guards remained, and Miranda and Booker were already charging them down. Booker beat Miranda to the punch as he threw the ball he had kept at the closer of the two, knocking the man into his companion who instinctively defended himself with the nasty piece of work attached to his right hand. The bloody mess that ensued as they collided was enough to turn a weaker man's stomach. Before the still standing guard could recover, Booker was on top of him, ripping the contraption from the man's arm and twisting his neck at the same time.

"I think a proper retreat is in order!" Miranda was having none of that as she zeroed in on the commanding officer that had spoken and vented his skull with her pistol before turning her advanced piece of technology on the next man in line. Before the rest of the fleeing guards knew what was going on, four of their number were dead with holes in vital organs that couldn't be fixed even if they had been able to get to a proper operating room in time.

"Too late assholes!" Jack shouted as she joined Miranda's pistol work with some of her own. SMG rounds soon filled the air, cutting down the remaining authorities before they could get up the stairs that lead to another section of the city.

Booker might have done something to save the fleeing men, if he hadn't just almost seen two people 'stoned' to death by a joyous crowd. He had done a lot of bad things in his life, but that had been too much even for him. Grabbing a fallen pistol, all he could bring himself to do was to shoot any man that hadn't died outright as Jack and Miranda laid into them.

"Come on! We need to leave! Jack!" Booker knew he was taking his life in his own hands as he started to drag the screaming woman away from the area as Miranda covered them. The cold look on the woman's face was back in force, and again he was torn between being terrified of Miranda or Jack for different reasons.

Only after a bullet raced past Jack's cheek did she snap out of her berserker rage when they climbed the stairs. "Shit!' She cursed as she and the rest of their group ducked for cover, the cut on her cheek a distant pain. "DON'T YOU EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN!"

"Worry about it later Jack!" Booker shouted back as one of the shooters got too close and he was able to use the hook weapon on his right hand to tear open the man's throat before taking his pistol's clips for himself. With more ammo in hand, DeWitt quickly popped out of cover and shot his fair share of enemies that were trying to move from cart to booth and anything else that was suitable cover in an attempt to close in on their flanks. He quickly slapped in one of the clips he had found in place and ducked back out of cover. It looked as if there were no immediate reinforcements coming as his eyes scanned the blood filled plaza.

Brooker pulled something out of his vest, a small white cloth. He stared at it for a moment, then dabbed at Jack's nose and pressed it to her cut cheek before she could protest. "What the hell I _just_ say DeWitt?" He ignored the look that practically shouted that he was going to be maimed if he didn't back off immediately and continued to clean up the cut on her cheek. "Thanks...prick." The man just nodded as he handed the cloth to her and moved towards the now eerily quiet plaza.

"Alright, we're getting out of here. Now." Booker didn't much care if his two companions wanted him in charge or not, he wasn't going to let them get themselves killed. "Miranda, cover me. Jack, watch our backs."

Prepared to argue, Jack stopped herself when something in Booker's voice caught her attention. It had sounded eerily familiar, even with her blood boiling and itching for a fight as she was, it had been enough to stop her. "Tsk, fine, lead the way DeWittless."

_How is this man able to calm Jack so easily?_ Miranda wondered as they followed close behind the man in question. Besides a few stragglers and mechanized turrets along the cobblestone street in front of them, they ran up against little resistance until they came upon another gate. By then, the temperature had risen considerably, and Miranda could swear she smelled something burning.

"Burn, in the name of the Prophet!" A voice shouted before the gate was blown off of its hinges, sending the three of them back as well to land painfully on their backs.

"This day just keeps getting better and better." Booker groaned as he tried to see through his blurred vision. Miranda and Jack were used to being tossed around, and were slightly quicker getting back to their feet. "Don't wait for me, get moving!"

"No shit DeWitt!" Jack shouted back as she tried to keep her distance from the grenades the armored, and flaming guard was chucking in her direction. If she had her biotics, she could have easily redirected one back at the source. Of course, it wouldn't have done her any good since the Fireman was immune to his own fire.

"Jack? You ever read Fahrenheit 451?" Jack just gave the other biotic an irritated, yet confused, look as she continued firing. The irony of their situation wasn't lost on Miranda however as she took aim and fired her heavy pistol at the Fireman's faceplate, but even her bullets weren't doing much to slow the flaming thing down. "It's stronger than it looks." Taking into the fact that the man was generating his own endless supply of fire, it didn't take much of a stretch for her to realize that he had to be stronger than anything she had ran across before. Even so, anything could die when enough damage was inflicted as she kept firing. She only saw cause to move when the Fireman turned his attention on her. "Shit!" Miranda barely got out of the blast zone in time as she jumped and rolled away, only to realize that she had been merely driven out into the open so that the brute could attempt to charge her directly.

He stopped cold when Jack unloaded an entire clip from her SMG into his chest from across the street, but they had another problem on their hands. The Fireman started to glow brighter than ever as he gathered energy for one last kamikaze charge.

"Get down!" Before either of them could say a word, Booker had already shoved both women back as a massive fiery explosion swept over their heads. The only thing that remained besides the crater the Fireman had left behind was a single bottle labeled Devil's Kiss. The flames the Fireman had created disappeared, leaving only the burn marks behind to show that, a few seconds ago, the entire area had been in flames.

"What the fuck was that?!" Jack had forgotten all about her cheek as she slowly stood to her feet again, dazed from hitting the pavement and coughing from the smoke that she had sucked down during the fight.

"Jack, I need some help here!" Miranda was already pulling Booker off of her, his back having taken the brunt of the heatwave that had washed over them. She was already pulling a vial of medi-gel from out of her pants pocket when Jack joined her a split second later. "Hold him steady, this is going to sting and he'll want to move." She didn't want to have to dig out the needle on the injector because of an ill timed twitch.

A quiet whisper reached their ears a moment later. "Just doing my job...the stupid stuff, right?" Hissing in pain when Miranda jabbed the needle into his back after they removed the remnants of his vest and shirt, Booker immediately felt a comforting numbness descend upon him. When his nerves and skin started to rebuild themselves in rapid succession, he grunted at the very strange sensation since it felt like a thousand pins and needles were crawling up and down his spine. Miranda continued to press the plunger down on the vial until the contents were depleted before pulling the vial out and tossing it aside.

"Fuck...don't do that again. Who am I supposed to yell at if you're dead?" It took Jack almost a whole minute to realize that she was crying. Confusion soon followed for the woman, and she didn't do well with confusion. _Why the Hell am I crying for this jackass?! I only just met him! _

_I must have hit my head harder than I thought. No way those are actual tears on her face. _With Miranda too focused on the task at hand, only Booker saw the tears falling from Jack's eyes as his back continued to heal. "Well..." Booker weakly pointed towards his current medic with a slight grin.

"The cheerleader doesn't count. She's never afraid of me anymore anyway. Pisses me off." Miranda had honestly never been afraid of Jack, now that she thought about it, but that didn't matter now. What mattered was that they were in this messed up place together, and Jack was not about to lose one of the few allies they had upon showing up.

"I am right here. Let the medi-gel settle in for a few minutes Mr. DeWitt, and you'll be back on your feet in no time." Satisfied with her work, Miranda stood and dusted her black leggings off while Jack wandered to where the Fireman had gone out with a considerable bang.

"Yeah, sure. I could smell the meat cooking off of me. Just leave me and go. I'll only slow you down like this." The smirk on the raven haired woman's face made Booker wonder just what she had injected him with. The pins and needles sensation had disappeared, leaving only numbness behind. Figuring it for some kind of advanced painkiller, DeWitt didn't expect to be mobile for months, if he was lucky.

Booker was annoyed to see they obviously didn't plan on leaving anytime soon. A few minutes later, they surprised him by yanking him to his feet. "Jack? You want to do the honors, or should I?" Booker was starting to doubt Miranda's sanity as she gave him a reassuring wink.

"I got this." Booker _knew_ they were crazy when Jack let go of him with one arm and slapped him on his bare back. Hard. When all he felt was the small sting of her hand against his flesh, which wasn't charred black when he looked over his shoulder, Booker had to blink in surprise at what he was seeing.

"That shouldn't be possible. What did you pump me full of?" Running a hand over the unmarked skin of his back, DeWitt reveled in simply feeling _normal_.

"Something from our own time and place Mr. DeWitt, that is all you need to know." Miranda replied, unable to help but admire the view from where she was standing. _For being almost two centuries behind in ideals and technology, this time period isn't without its...benefits._ "As I said before, you wouldn't believe us if we told you, just be glad it worked."

"I'm not about to argue over the result." Amazement was easy to detect in his voice, but he was quick to accept the fact that he was feeling better than he had any right to feel after being severely burned.

"Good. If you're done acting like a pussy, we can get going." Casually tossing the Devil's Kiss she had picked up in her hand, Jack caught it once more before pulling away from the overturned cart she had been leaning up against. "Screw it, bottoms up."

Booker was already running towards her, one step ahead of Miranda, as Jack downed the bottle's contents before they could reach her. DNA manipulation in a bottle was what Vigors amounted to, and Jack was finding that out the hard way as she gasped in a mixture of pain and pleasure as flames started to spread across her body. She was physically unharmed, but to her it didn't feel like it as she fell to her hands and knees. Booker and Miranda wisely backed away, even if he desperately wanted to comfort the woman that was screaming in agony and ecstasy simultaneously. When a heatwave exploded out of Jack's trembling body, she stood on shaky legs, fire in her open hands before the flames disappeared completely.

Staring at her unmarked hands, Jack was grinning maniacally at what she had just attained. "That was one hell of a rush!" It had been many times better than the endorphin enriched drugs she had been pumped full of as a kid back on Pragia.

"You idiot! That stuff could have killed you!" Despite his angry tone, Booker grabbed Jack by the shoulders to keep her from keeling over again and thoroughly checked her for any new injuries.

Jerking away from DeWitt, she merely glared daggers at him. "I'm fine dammit! Besides the fact it felt like I was being roasted alive for a minute there, it was worth it if I can fry people now."

"I guess we can call that a successful test. But Booker's right, it was an unnecessary risk." Miranda realized after the fact that she had called Booker by his first name, making her cheeks turn red for only a moment.

"And how many 'unnecessary risks' did we take while we were trailing after Shepard?" Jack just continued to glare at both of them, mainly so they didn't see what she was really feeling at the moment. Her poor choice of words didn't help. Even if it had almost been a year since she'd died so that they could live, Jack wanted to bang her head against the wall for dragging up memories she didn't want to remember. Mainly because they were too painful for her, even if most of them after Shepard had gotten past her defenses were good ones.

Miranda had similar thoughts going through her head as she looked away, leaving DeWitt to puzzle out what had just happened. He had his own demons to worry about, and it didn't take him long to realize that his two companions had their fair share between them. "She was a close friend of yours I take it?"

"The only one." Jack replied, and Miranda could only nod in agreement.

"Let's get to Monument Island. You can tell me about her on the way if ya like." Booker offered as he took the lead again.

Jack smirked as she recalled a few of Shepard's better moments. "Well...she was sorta like you. Arrogant, stubborn, obnoxious, bitchy, and had a killer instinct to rival some of the hard cases I took down in Purgatory before I was put in cryo." Booker had absolutely no idea what that last part was about, but he let it drop for now.

"She was also passionate, driven, brave, kind, intelligent, and even inspirational when it mattered. People followed her and didn't ask why. She saw things in such a way that was unique to her and her alone, and it allowed her to do impossible things." The mantle of being a hero fit Shepard perfectly, but what few people realized was that there was a human being underneath all the accolades that were well deserved. Shepard had never thought of herself as a hero. Even up to the end, she never once let her fame go to her head. She had remained human in an inhuman galaxy, where the end of all life had threatened them all.

"She sounds like a hell of a soldier, wish I could have met her." Booker stated, and earned himself a flicker of a smile from both women behind him before he made a quick stop in a nearby clothing store to replace his lost vest and undershirt. Once that business was taken care of, Booker came out feeling like a new man as they soon stood before a sign that declared they were approaching some place called the Blue Ribbon.

"I can tell ya one thing Booker, she'd have probably killed that firebug a lot quicker than we did." Jack shrugged as she snapped her fingers and felt her lips uplift into a smile when a small flame appeared on her pointer finger.

"You're like a child with a new toy. Be it as it may, this radical twist on old American ideals would not have gone over well with Shepard." Miranda was quick to add in as she looked at the doors in front of her. She expected a trap, but on the other hand, that wasn't anything new for her as she pulled her heavy pistol free from its holster once more. "In any event, I hope you're ready for whatever is beyond this door."

Booker at least wasn't so surprised that the 'trap' Miranda had expected was only the twins, yet again. "We were wondering when you'd get here." The man said from behind the bar, rubbing the counter with a familiar white cloth rag.

_Closing Notes; Vergil1989; Does anyone see a pattern here yet? :P In all seriousness, writing the Lutece twins is a blast on its own, but the rest has been a hell of a time as well. This idea was crazy at its start, but it has turned into a full on story that is several layers thick._

_Archer83; I'm still blown away by all the metaphorical comparisons we thought of between Mass Effect and Bioshock: Infinite. Not to mention how incredibly well Jack and Miranda fit into this story. Honestly folks, this started out just as a fun idea. Then it kept on getting more and more complex the more we thought about it. I dare say that the general plot we finally agreed on rivals Infinite's story._

_Vergil1989; He's right, at first it was just to see how awesome we could make Jack and Miranda be in the world of Bioshock, but then we started taking it seriously. It literally exploded from there. I'm not sure it rivals the story we get from Infinite, but it certainly does do a good job of making even my head explode lol. At any rate, feedback is always appreciated, but as I've been fond of saying of late, only if it's thoughtful. :P Otherwise, PM, Follow, Favorite, etc as you guys and gals like._


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